The weather was much better today, still a little cloudy and slightly cool, but it was much better than the heat and humidity we had experienced through the first leg of the trip. We arrived in the port of Kusadasi (pronounced locally as Koo-chah-dah-say) and were taken about 30 minutes inland to the ancient city of Ephesus. Now I had been anticipating this stop all trip because of the enormous amount of biblical history that Ephesus has from the House of the Virgin Mary to the final resting place for John including the book of Revelation being written by John here.
Our first stop in modern day Ephesus was the original house of the Virgin Mary. She came to Ephesus with John after the death of Christ and had made her home on the outskirts of the city up on a small hill where she lived out the remaining years of her life. For all the Catholics that were on this tour, this was even more significant since they hold her in extremely high regard under Roman Catholicism.
The next stop was the grand daddy tour of the day, the ancient city and ruins of Ephesus from the first century AD. We spent quite a bit time here. Ephesus was mentioned in the book of Acts several times by and also the place and people in which Paul had written to in the book of Ephesians. We saw several points in the old city that were incredibly remarkable. I got the same feelings here as I did while visiting Pompei. Knowing the history of this place, it was just amazing to be here and take it all in and imagine the people we’ve so often read about in the Bible living here.
Our last and final stop was at St. Johns Basilica and the tomb of St. John. What was different about this Basilica among the many others we had seen throughout the trip, was that this one laid in ruin. Not only that, but a big mosque had been erected right next to it. How fitting.
We were able to see what the Basilica would have looked like, and it was quite beautiful. It’s a shame that it lies in ruin now. I hope they are able to reconstruct it one day.
Here’s what it once looked like:
The tomb of John was still there on display. It was surreal for me since I had been studying and reading about John and his writings all growing up in my Bible study groups. We got some pictures, although I was quite annoyed that, while I was observing the tomb of John, the Muslim call to prayer suddenly rang out from the nearby Minaret (the tall skinny tower erected all around muslim cities that calls out 5 times a day). It was annoying because this was a serene moment for me and was rudely interrupted by the last thing I wanted to hear. I guess it was an ironic moment, something that represents the battle between Christianity and Islam for so many years, or should I say the constant oppression of Christians by Muslims throughout the centuries.
After seeing John’s Basilica and the tomb of John, we headed back to the boat for a fun evening on the boat.
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Wow, what an experience! It will be so cool now when you are reading the Bible, and can literally picture it in your head. This is amazing!